A Southern Life

Happy Mother’s Day!

“Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee,” Exodus 20:12.

This is the 5th of the 10 Commandments. It has been said that the fifth commandment is pivotal, for it is between the commandments teaching us to love our Creator, and those admonishing us to love our fellow man.

I have been blessed to have a wonderful mother! Love you Mama and Happy Mother’s Day!

Today’s Sunday Favorite is a post that Mama did about her memories of the porch.

From April 15, 2009:

Mama’s Southern Porch

Here is another great “guest” post from Mama. Today, she tells us about her memories of the porch.

After reading all the comments about porches it brought back memories of my childhood. We had a big cement front porch, a porch swing and two views of the two streets since we lived on a corner.

Many summer mornings and afternoons my friends from the neighborhood would come and play jacks on the porch, swing on the swing, play house or whatever. We would sometimes play cowboys, annie over, rover rover, swinging beauty, or maybe just go to the library and check out books,ride bikes or skate up and down the sidewalk but we would eventually end up on the porch resting and planning what to do next.

When I reached my teens the porch was a “meeting place” for boyfriends to sit in the swing or on the steps with me. We were, of course, under the watchful eye of my parents who were in the living room with the windows open, and could(and often did) appear at any moment to join us. I had many a goodnight kiss on the front porch.
I now have a screened-in porch which we enjoy immensely. Two of our granddaughters love to come and swing on the glider and play and of course the backyard is just outside the screen door so it is like being outside but protected from the wind, bugs, sun, etc.
It seems sad to see so many homes with closed doors, no porches and many times no communication with neighbors. How can we ever get any problems solved, without porches?

Today’s Lagniappe: Sweet Tea
In the South when you order tea, it is either sweet or unsweet. Southerners love sweet tea. Here is a recipe to make your sweet tea to drink with a friend on the porch.

Around 3 quarts water
2 cups Sugar
4 Quart size tea bags.

Bring water to a rolling boil, add sugar. (Stir to dissolve)
Add 4 tea bags. Stir. Let sit around 20 minutes
Pour up into gallon jug or container. Fill the rest with cool water.

Join Chari at Happy to Design for Sunday favorites and Charlotte and Ginger at Blogger Spirit for Spiritual Sunday and enjoy your Sunday!

Join Chari at Happy to Design for Sunday favorites and Charlotte and Ginger at Blogger Spirit for Spiritual Sunday and enjoy your Sunday!

It is Sunday so that means a past favorite and something for the soul. I’m very blessed to have a talented, creative, Christian mother. Last March, she wrote a guest post telling about how she got a great recipe for poppy seed rolls. If you would like the poppy seed roll recipe, it was from an earlier post, HERE.

From March 13, 2009:

Mama’s Southern Guest Post

A couple of days ago I posted a recipe that my mother gave me for poppy seed rolls. Mama called and was telling me about how she got the recipe and that she should leave that as a comment. I thought a better idea was for her to write a guest post. So . . . here it is – enjoy:

My Mother, Carrol Ward

The bread recipe on Christi’s blog (3/11/09) has an interesting beginning for us:
My husband, Chester and I were in Monticello, Utah last September doing a revival for a church there. The Pastor’s wife invited us for dinner one night before church. The meal was delicious but when she set the bread on the table, I thought it looked soooo good, I was sure it was dessert. Well, of course, it wasn’t but it looked so pretty and tasted so good it could have been. She also served some of her home canned apricot jam with it. Well, I could have skipped church that night because I thought I had died and gone to heaven already.

I have since shared the recipe with several people. I fixed it one night, along with a roast dinner for my next door neighbors. The wife has MS and so her husband does most of the cooking, which he is learning to do, so they really did appreciate the meal. He especially liked it and asked for the recipe. He has sent it to several family members and friend all across the country.

The trip to Utah was also memorable for another incident which happened to us:
One afternoon The Pastor and his wife took us to the top of Abajo Peak which is 11,000 ft, located in the Blue Mountains. It was a beautiful site and you could see forever. They have two ATV’s and often ride on the mountains around Monticello. They suggested that my husband use them one day and even had one of the members of the church go along as a guide (thank goodness, we would probably still be there without him).

It had been at least 30 years since I had ridden an ATV and my husband had never ridden one. So, we purchased some sweat suits at Alco, layered our clothes, starting with our pajamas, and put on the warmest clothes we could put together and met our guide at 7:30 one morning. After a brief overview of how to operate the machines we took off. Everything went great until our guide took off on what he called a trail, with lots of deep ruts, sheer drop-offs, low hanging tree branches and I don’t know what all. But, we kept up with him and it was fun. We had reached about 10,000 ft.when the trail (if you can call it that) became more of challenge.

I was riding behind the guide and in front of Chester when I came to some ruts. The left wheels of the ATV kinda slipped into the ruts and began to “fall” over and . . . I began to pray! ” Lord don’t let this thing fall on me!” I was yelling “Help!” but no one could hear me for the noise the ATV’s make. Chester could see something was happening to me and the guide stopped and looked back and later said that I just didn’t look right. Well of course I didn’t look right, I was slipping off the ATV!
When I got off the ATV to the ground, unhurt, the machine righted itself. After we decided that I was alright we remounted the things and took off again.

We were riding along enjoying the scenery which was beautiful and I began to thank God for letting me see all this and taking care of a 70 year old woman who didn’t have sense enough to take care of herself. But I believe life is to be enjoyed and shared. Good recipes should be shared as well.

Today’s Lagniappe: Also from Mama – Pear Relish
This recipe for Pear Relish is one of Christi’s favorites)

Pear Relish
16 -19 pears (fairly firm, not soft) cored and ground.
6 medium onions, ground
8 green peppers, ground
4 sweet red peppers, ground
6 cups vinegar (5% acidity)
6 cups sugar
3 Tbs. mustard seeds
2 Tbs. pickling salt
1 Tbs. ground tumeric
1 Tsp. ground allspice
1 Tsp cinnamon
1 Tsp. ginger

Let pears, onions and peppers stand in separate containers for 1 hour. Pour boiling water over each; drain very well. Combine pears, onions, peppers, vinegar, sugar, and seasonings in a large kettle. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer uncovered, 30 minutes.
Pour hot mixture into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 in head space. Remove air bubbles; wipe jar rims. Cover at once with metal lids and screw on bands. Process in boiling-water bath 20 minutes. Remove jars from hot water carefully and place on cloth to cool. When the jars are cool enough to handle move to a cool place and let set for 1 month before opening. Yield about 10 pints.

This is especially good with chicken and dumplings or pinto beans and corn bread.

Christi’s note: I think I have mentioned this before – my father died in 1992 of cancer. My mother has since remarried a wonderful man, Chester Ward. Chester is a minister who serves as Director of Missions for Kay Baptist Association in Oklahoma.